Cardiac surgeon offers stress-reducing advice to Harbaugh

Of course, that’s now a relevant question for Jim Harbaugh, who was treated for an irregular heartbeat Thursday at Stanford Hospital. Common contributing factors for an irregular heartbeat include lack of sleep and stress.

Dr. Junaid Khan, a cardiac surgeon based in Oakland, has a suggestion for Harbaugh: meditation.

No, really.

Citing the findings of a recently released study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, Khan noted meditation helped patients lower their blood pressure, stress and anger.

“Maybe we’ll see (Harbaugh) do a yoga pose on the sideline,” he said.

Khan was joking, but he’s serious about his patients in situations similar to that of Harbaugh finding ways to reduce stress beyond medication.

“It’s not that you shouldn’t take medication,” Khan said. “But you should try to find other things, whether it’s meditation, or it’s something else, to reduce stress, which will then reduce the chance of this irregular heartbeat coming back.”

When I noted meditation and the old-school Harbaugh didn’t seem like a terrific match, Khan mentioned one of Harbaugh’s former coaches, Mike Ditka.

Iron Mike, he said, used relaxation techniques after he suffered a mild heart attack on Nov. 3, 1988, when he was the head coach of the Bears and Harbaugh was his backup quarterback. Ditka was 49. Harbaugh will turn 49 on Dec. 23.

“Nobody’s any more old school than Mike Ditka, right?” Khan said. “There’s nothing like when your heart’s beating 200 times a minute and you can’t catch it. It’s a scary feeling and I think that it is a good wake-up call. I’m glad they caught it, I’m glad they were able to treat it and he’ll be back on the sideline.”